Power Supplies

[deontologician]

Migrated from original Mech wiki:

The power supply of the spaceship is central to the operation of all systems. Without it, nothing functions. Depending on the size of a power supply the builder is willing to add to his spaceship, more or less power is available. The power supply is an independent component of each spaceship, and as such, requires some sort of armor to protect it from being destroyed in battle. Many power supplies will have a minimum armor in order to protect the rest of the spaceship from their own dangerous emissions.

Fuel for power supplies come in different efficiencies, and with different power drain tolerances. Each fuel has a standard power output per unit time, as well as surge tolerances. A fuel Power-Curve is a graph of the fuel’s power output and how long the fuel can sustain that power output. This, combined with the total energy contained in a unit of fuel, determines how long and how hard a power source can be pushed.

Some very advanced power supplies do not require fuel. These generally have very unstable internal structures which must be constantly kept in good repair in order to prevent catastrophic failure. For more information, see the articles on Dyson (#18) and Maybachs (#19).

Large Power Supplies

Nuclear Fission Reactor

• Inexpensive
• Requires heavy radiation shielding
• Requires expensive, highly efficient fuel
• Releases heavy radiation emissions

  Hot Nuclear Fusion Reactor

• Moderately expensive
• Requires heavy thermal shielding
• Requires inexpensive, highly efficient fuel
• Releases light emissions of Helium isotopes

  Dyson-Maybach Singularity Engine

• Expensive
• Requires no shielding, but needs expensive dimensional containment generator (sold separately)
• No fuel
• No Emissions

  Medium Power Supplies

  Coal Generator

• Inexpensive
• Requires inexpensive, minimally efficient fuel
• No shielding required
• Heavy emissions

  Hydrogen Cell

• Moderate cost
• No shielding required
• Requires inexpensive, moderately efficient fuel
• Light emissions (water vapor)

  Multiple Mini-Dyson Spacial Inflection Chain (MMD-SIC)

• Expensive
• Requires special Dyson-9 Composite shielding
• Requires expensive, highly efficient fuel.
• No emissions

  Light Power Supplies

  Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

• Battery fitting is inexpensive
• Requires more CPU to regulate properly
• Requires corrosion resistant shielding
• Requires expensive, highly efficient fuel (A new battery)
• No emissions

  Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor

• Moderately Expensive
• Requires no shielding
• Requires inexpensive, low efficiency fuel
• No emissions

  Maybach Confinement Fusion Reactor

• Extremely expensive
• Requires expensive Dyson-5 composite shielding
• Requires inexpensive, highly efficient fuel
• No emissions